Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Taking it to the Banks revisiting Goya

Banks are a necessary evil. Banks provide individuals with opportunity's to finance projects that would otherwise be impossible. The new house, the new car, business development etc... In my opinion they almost always have some very unsavory business practices, business being the key word. After all it is a business and hence required to make money to survive. Regardless from my current situation in Spain not only in the banking industry (pieces on other Industries to come) I've found a number of practices that as I said before seem to me foul. I won't go into a litany of my grievances I'll let you use your own personal experiences to fill in the blanks.

Goya's "3rd of May 1808" was my point of departure. It is a seminal work dealing with the execution of Spanish rebels outside of Madrid by Napoleanic forces that were occupying Spain at the time. And for me the work is very inspiring. Drama in lights and darks, composition and content. Goya is considered a national hero and this work a testament to Spanish courage in the face of adversity. I wanted to work with some of the same material but give it a contemporary slant.

Detail of the Executioners

In this particular instance the culprits are the banks and the victims the Spanish public. I'm certain banks are more or less the same the world over I just happen to live in Spain at the moment.

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Frank Plant is a Barcelona based American sculptor. He studied sculpture at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After finishing his B.A. in fine arts in 1993 he moved to Amsterdam and during this period he began to develop his drawings in steel. These are simple and direct studies of the forms and compositions of everyday objects. Welded steel has always been the principal medium for Plant's work, whether in his two dimensional pieces such as his fingerprints series or his earlier three dimensional kinetic metal sculptures, that incorporate found objects. In 1999 Plant moved to Barcelona and began to diversify the materials he uses in his sculpture. Photography and painted wooden backgrounds, light boxes, motors, sensors, sound and music have all became integral parts of his sculptures. In investigating new ways of communicating with the viewer, interactivity played an increasingly central role in Plant's work. His work is in private and public collections throughout Europe and North America.
For more info please visit/contact:
www.frankplant.net
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